Publication Date March 16, 2016 | Associated Press

Rapid melt of New Zealand glaciers ends hikes onto them

New Zealand
In this Feb. 6, 2016 photo, tourists who have taken a helicopter trip onto the Fox Glacier climb through a hole in the ice in New Zealand. The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been melting at such a rapid rate that it has become too dangerous for tourists to hike onto them from the valley floor, ending a tradition that dates back a century. Photo: Nick Perry, AP
In this Feb. 6, 2016 photo, tourists who have taken a helicopter trip onto the Fox Glacier climb through a hole in the ice in New Zealand. The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been melting at such a rapid rate that it has become too dangerous for tourists to hike onto them from the valley floor, ending a tradition that dates back a century. Photo: Nick Perry, AP

Tour operators stopped taking guided hikes onto the Franz Josef in 2012 and the nearby Fox in 2014.

A 2014 paper published in the journal Global and Planetary Change concluded the two glaciers have each melted by 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) in length since the 1800s, making them about 20 percent shorter.[1] The glaciers have recently been melting at a faster pace than ever previously recorded, the authors said

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